NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday said the department of telecommunications (DoT) should allow sharing of all types telecom infrastructure between the operators, to reduce costs, improve quality of services, avoid duplication of investment, and provide timely services, among other things.
Trai’s recommendation to DoT, followed a consultation on the subject ‘telecommunication infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing, and spectrum leasing’. This came after DoT sent a reference to Trai in 2022, which asked the regulator to share views that whether sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of licenced service providers should be allowed.
At present, as per the provisions contained in Unified Licence, the sharing of active infrastructure is limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network (RAN) and transmission system only. Besides, some of the service licences and authorisations under the licence do not contain specific provisions relating to the permission for passive infrastructure sharing.
Active infrastructure sharing is the sharing of electronic infrastructure of the telecommunication network, while passive infrastructure sharing is where non-electronic infrastructure such as building, dark fiber, duct space, right of way, etc, is shared.
“It is expected that permitting active infrastructure sharing among telecommunication service licensees would result in lowering the cost of the provision of wireline services, which may boost the proliferation of wireline telephone and broadband services in the country,” Trai said.
In its representation to the government, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that it is important for telecom service providers to have a model which enables them to share infrastructure that passive, active and core, to reduce capital expenditure (CAPEX), operating expenditure (OPEX) and maximise network capacity and capabilities.
Permitting same could result in saving of upto 45% in in both CAPEX and OPEX.
In its recommendations, Trai also asked DoT to include a provision in the agreement with the Universal Service Provider (USP) under the Digital Bharat Nidhi (Universal Services Obligation Fund – USOF) that the USP shall not refuse to share the passive infrastructure laid under the project to at least two other telecom service providers on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis.
Besides, the telecom operator which laid telecom infrastructure in far-flung areas under the USOF, should be mandated to allow roaming to other TSPs on its network in such remote and far-flung areas.
The regulator has also proposed that sharing of spectrum should be permitted between telecom operators. This could be done either by way of pooling of access spectrum held by the participating access providers in different frequency bands through common radio access networks, or by way of allowing the partnering access service providers to use the radio access networks of each other operating in the shared frequency bands in the licenced service area.
For spectrum assigned to government agencies or non-telecom operators, Trai asked DoT to explore the possibility of implementing authorised shared access (ASA) technique-based spectrum sharing in India. Through this, the unutilised spectrum can be shared with telecom operators, which will reduce their infrastructure cost.
Source: The Financial Express